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Thursday, 27 April 2017

We are starting the month
of May and I know that all of you are very busy developing your assessment tasks for the end of the course. I would like to highlight that assessment tasks can take many forms. Some of the most common assessment
tasks are exams, tests and essays. Therefore, why not ask our students to include
their essays/articles on different topics related to our content areas in a
magazine?In this way, they would profitfrom the positive outcomes of both essay writing and group work:

Essays help
students to learn academic writing
skills, including formulating an argument; presenting evidence;
integrating material from sources; and referencing appropriately. Students
will synthesize and evaluate
theoretical ideas and concepts and develop their research skills.

Group
work emphasises collaborative learning,
problem-solving and critical evaluation, and is a valuable preparation for
the workplace since students will develop team skills and learn to work with a range of people.

Let me facilitate your work by providing you with everything you need
to help students design their own magazine:

The second one is very easy to use and you can follow a simple tutorial here:

If you choose the digital format, you will be able to embed the magazines into the school/class website or blog.

I hope that you will like my proposal and encourage your students to create their own magazine. You will have an opportunity to assess their knowledge of some topics and their writing skills while they will develop their critical thinking skills and enjoy a very positive teamwork experience.

Monday, 24 April 2017

A variety of projects on Robotics is already being developed in many of our schools and the new official call to present new projects on Innovative Science and Technology for 2017-2018 is open till May 8th. If you choose to take part in Robotics, you will probably be interested in knowing aboutWorld Robot OlympiadTM (WRO). This association brings together young people from all over the world to develop their creativity, design and problem solving skills through challenging and educational robot competitions and activities. If you want to engage your students in Robotics, why not participate in the competition in Spain and try to qualify for the international WRO final which takes place once every year in November. The winning teams from national competitions will represent their countries from November 10-12 in Costa Rica, the hosts of WRO 2017! There are different categories as well as different age groups, ranging from under 12-year-olds to 17-25-year-olds so both Primary and Secondary students can take part in it. You can read the general rules here. Why not start by trying the local competition on June 10th in Bilbao? As Patricia Briggs says, "trying is always enough". Good luck!

Tuesday, 4 April 2017

I live in Getxo and new containers, including the ones for organic waste, have just been installed. Maybe that is the reason why I have become more sensitive about the need to recycle, reuse and reduce. The Town Hall of Getxo has also launched an on-line competition for Primary and Secondary students in the area so that they face a series of challenges that will let them learn about the benefits of recycling. Eight schools are taking part in this competition and I can say that families and teachers are as happy as students themselves.

I was wondering how I could contribute to raise awareness about this topic in other schools and I have thought of sharing a simple proposal I have thought of with teachers of English or teachers who implement Science or Global Issues through the medium of English. You can find my proposal here.

If you can spend more than two sessions on the topic, I would recommend a great website by Michelle Henry, a teacher of English. There is a huge variety of activities on vocabulary, audios, games, and even songs related to the topic. Jack Johnson's "The 3 R" is my favourite. You can listen to it below these lines:

- What did he do as a singer so as to protect the environment? Name at least two actions he carried out while he was recording. - In his view, how can music change the world?You can follow the interview here:

I hope that by trying one or more of the suggestions above your students will collaborate to the 3 Rs.